Christodoulides sets course for UN assembly and high-stakes talks

Cyprus President, Nikos Christodoulides, leaves on Friday for Athens where he will attended in the evening a dinner hosted in his honour by the Cyprus Union of Shipowners. On Saturday he will fly from the Greek capital to New York, where he will participate in the UN General Assembly and will hold a series of meetings, focusing on efforts for the resumption of Cyprus talks.

According to the Presidency during the dinner the President will refer, among others, to the challenges which the Cypriot shipping sector faces, as well as to the competitive advantages of the Cypriot ship registry and the cooperation between Cyprus and Greece in the shipping sector both at the European and the international level.

The dinner will be attended by the President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

The President will leave on September 16 from Athens for New York, where he will attend the UN General Assembly which it will address.

Asked on Thursday where there there is any development as regards a possible meeting of him with the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar, in New York, Christodoulides said there was nothing on this yet.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.